Kazakhstan and Australia kick off Billie Jean Cup with victories

Kazakhstan prevailed with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Glasgow in the first match of Group C at the finals of the Billie Jean Cup, the unofficial women’s world team tennis championship.

Yulia Putintseva achieved a turnaround in the first singles against Katie Boulter with 2-1 (4:6, 6:3, 6:2), and then the champion from “Wimbledon” Elena Rybakina secured the triumph after 2-0 (6:1, 6:4) over Harriet Dart.

In the doubles match, which was irrelevant to the final winner, Britain’s Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls recorded an honorable victory with 7:5, 6:3 over Elena Rybakina and Anna Danilina. The team of Spain is also in the group, and only the winner qualifies for the semi-finals.

In Group B, Australia also won by 2-1 against Slovakia. Storm Sanders defeated Viktoria Kuzmova by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3), and in the second singles match, Ajla Tomljanovic took a fast victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova by 2-0 (6:1, 6:2) and guaranteed the final victory for her team. In doubles, Storm Sanders and Ellen Perez lost to Viktoria Kuzmova and Tereza Mihalíkova by 1-2 (6:2, 3:6, 6:10), but it was not decisive.